Panel Discussion: In Conversation with Four Commerce Law and Management Academic Advisors

Tshepiso Maleswena, Aneshree Nayager, Siyasamkela Jinoyi, and Mbongeni Shungube

The pandemic and sudden move to emergency online learning challenged both worldviews and traditional methods of practice within the South African Higher Education space. Universities across the country (and globe) were all pushed to respond to the situation in new and unconventional ways, often without exemplars or guidelines. This meant finding innovative solutions to the challenges brought by the pandemic: whilst great strides were made, we must acknowledge that mistakes were also made, and in the process, lessons were learnt. In this interactive conversation, four academic advisors from CLM invite you to journey with them through their experiences of navigating a pandemic and transitioning from a traditional, human to human teaching and learning space, to an online and contactless one. The conversation seeks to explore the lessons learnt through the process. Through our story we reflect on the innovative responses, gains and mistakes that we made during ERT&L in 2020. Retrospectively, we also discuss what we think the faculty and the University could have done differently. Through this dialogue we hope to initiate conversation on areas where we (Wits) can grow and hopefully, eventually find ways to meaningfully address areas of real concern. Additionally, aim to reinforce and encourage action in areas where we are doing well. Finally, and most importantly, we hope that this conversation will facilitate and encourage sharing of methods of practice across faculties and disciplines.

Type of Contribution

Conversation